For the health, growth and strength of agriculture

Pepsi, Taking the Challenge

This week, Pepsi announced that it has found a way to make a plastic bottle from 100% plant-based materials. The company plans to test a few hundred thousand bottles commercially next year before making the switch for all of its bottled products.

The bottles would be made from switch grass, pine bark, corn husks and other materials. In the future, the company expects to also use orange peels, oat hulls, potato scraps and other leftover materials from its food businesses.

The bottles are being hailed as “the beginning of the end of petroleum-based plastics.”

Sounds like a good thing, the end of petroleum-based plastics.

Yet, certain segments of the public and business sectors are resistant to the end of petroleum-based fuels.

Pepsi will replace billions of its bottles with plant-made plastics—the ethanol industry replaces billions of gallons of foreign petroleum with plant-made fuels.

Pepsi’s new bottles, despite being made from food scraps, won’t take food from anyone’s plate, and won’t drive up food prices. Neither does ethanol. It uses none of the world’s food grain supply, and has a negligible effect on consumer food expenditures.

Agriculture has long believed independence from foreign oil is good public policy. We applaud Pepsi for its commitment to moving away from petroleum-based plastics.